Communication terminal device, and recording medium

ABSTRACT

When a user selects an image, a control unit detects a face image from the selected image and acquires person data corresponding to the face image. Moreover, the control unit specifies address book data of the person and acquires an e-mail address from the address book data. When the user inputs an e-mail address, the control unit also has a function of detecting an image in which a person having the input e-mail address as a destination is an imaged object and creating an e-mail attached with the image.

This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No.2009-184388 filed on Aug. 7, 2009, the entire disclosure of which isincorporated by reference herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates to a communication terminal device to create ane-mail attached with an image, and a recording medium.

BACKGROUND ART

Sending an e-mail with an image from a mobile phone and the like isbeing performed.

In many cases, such an e-mail with an image is often desired to be sentto an imaged person in the image. Unexamined Japanese Patent ApplicationKOKAI Publication No. 2004-326281 discloses an image distribution serverin which an imaged person is specified by an image attached to an e-mailreceived by a user terminal, and an e-mail with the image is sent to thespecified person.

Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 2004-356985discloses a camera imaging device in which an image related to a personspecified by a user is selected and an e-mail with the selected image issent to the specified person.

In the example disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAIPublication No. 2004-326281, an e-mail is sent to all the persons thatwere specified by an image attached to an e-mail. Therefore, although itis convenient for a user to automatically determine a destination, ane-mail may be sent to a person whom the user does not want to send to.

In the example disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAIPublication No. 2004-356985, all images related to a specified personare attached to an e-mail, and the e-mail is sent. Therefore, althoughit is convenient for a user to automatically determine attached images,an image that the user does not want to send may be attached to thee-mail and sent.

SUMMARY

An exemplary object of the present invention is to provide acommunication terminal device and a recording medium that have aconvenience of automatically determining a destination of an e-mail froman attached image and also can prevent an e-mail from being sent to adestination to which a user does not intend to send.

Another exemplary object of the present invention is to provide acommunication terminal device and a recording medium that have aconvenience of automatically determining an image to be attached from adestination of an e-mail and also can prevent an attached image that theuser does not intend to send from being sent.

In order to achieve the aforementioned objects, a communication terminaldevice according to a first exemplary aspect of the present inventionincludes:

-   -   an image storage unit to store images;    -   an e-mail address storage unit to store persons' e-mail        addresses;    -   an attached image selection unit to receive a user's selection        of an image to be attached to an e-mail from the images stored        in the image storage unit;    -   an imaged object detection unit to detect information that        specifies an imaged person in the attached image selected by the        attached image selection unit;    -   an e-mail address acquisition unit to acquire an e-mail address        of the imaged person from the e-mail addresses stored in the        e-mail address storage unit, on the basis of the information        detected by the imaged object detection unit;    -   a display unit to display the e-mail addresses acquired by the        e-mail address acquisition unit as destination candidates of the        e-mail with the attached image so as to be selected by the user;        and    -   an e-mail address setting unit to set an e-mail address selected        by the user from the e-mail addresses selectably displayed by        the display unit as a destination of the e-mail with the        attached image.

In order to achieve the aforementioned objects, a communication terminaldevice according to a second exemplary aspect of the present inventionincludes:

-   -   an image storage unit to store images;    -   an e-mail address storage unit to store persons' e-mail        addresses;    -   an e-mail address input unit to receive a user's input of an        e-mail address;    -   an image specification unit to specify an image in which a        person having the e-mail address input by the e-mail address        input unit as a destination is an imaged object from the images        stored in the image storage unit;    -   a display unit to display, as image candidates to be attached to        an e-mail destined for the e-mail address input by the e-mail        address input unit, identification information of the image        specified by the image specification unit so as to be selected        by the user; and    -   an image attaching unit to attach the image selected by the user        from the images selectably displayed by the display unit to the        e-mail destined for the e-mail address input by the e-mail        address input unit.

In order to achieve the aforementioned objects, a recording mediumaccording to a third exemplary aspect of the present invention records aprogram, the program making a computer function as:

-   -   an image storage unit to store images;    -   an e-mail address storage unit to store persons' e-mail        addresses;    -   an attached image selection unit to receive a user's selection        of an image to be attached to an e-mail from the images stored        in the image storage unit;    -   an imaged object detection unit to detect information that        specifies an imaged person in the attached image selected by the        attached image selection unit;    -   an e-mail address acquisition unit to acquire an e-mail address        of the imaged person from the e-mail addresses stored in the        e-mail address storage unit, on the basis of the information        detected by the imaged object detection unit;    -   a display unit to display the e-mail addresses acquired by the        e-mail address acquisition unit as destination candidates of the        e-mail with the attached image so as to be selected by the user;        and    -   an e-mail address setting unit to set an e-mail address selected        by the user from the e-mail addresses selectably displayed by        the display unit as a destination of the e-mail with the        attached image.

In order to achieve the aforementioned objects, a recording mediumaccording to a fourth exemplary aspect of the present invention recordsa program, the program making a computer function as:

-   -   an image storage unit to store images;    -   an e-mail address storage unit to store persons' e-mail        addresses;    -   an e-mail address input unit to receive a user's input of an        e-mail address;    -   an image specification unit to specify an image in which a        person having the e-mail address input by the e-mail address        input unit as a destination is an imaged object from the images        stored in the image storage unit;    -   a display unit to display, as an image candidate to be attached        to an e-mail destined for the e-mail address input by the e-mail        address input unit, identification information of the image        specified by the image specification unit so as to be selected        by the user; and    -   an image attaching unit to attach the image selected by the user        from the images selectably displayed by the display unit to the        e-mail destined for the e-mail address input by the e-mail        address input unit as the destination.

In order to achieve the aforementioned objects, a communication terminaldevice according to a fifth exemplary aspect of the present inventionincludes:

-   -   image storage means for storing images;    -   e-mail address storage means for storing persons' e-mail        addresses;    -   attached image selection means for receiving a user's selection        of an image to be attached to an e-mail from the images stored        in the image storage means;    -   imaged object detection means for detecting information that        specifies an imaged person in the attached image selected by the        attached image selection means;    -   e-mail address acquisition means for acquiring an e-mail address        of the imaged person from the e-mail addresses stored in the        e-mail address storage means, on the basis of the information        detected by the imaged object detection means;    -   display means for displaying the e-mail addresses acquired by        the e-mail address acquisition means as destination candidates        of the e-mail with the attached image so as to be selected by        the user; and    -   e-mail address setting means for setting an e-mail address        selected by the user from the e-mail addresses selectably        displayed by the display means as a destination of the e-mail        with the attached image.

In order to achieve the aforementioned objects, a communication terminaldevice according to a sixth exemplary aspect of the present inventionincludes:

-   -   image storage means for storing images;    -   e-mail address storage means for storing persons' e-mail        addresses;    -   e-mail address input means for receiving a user's input of an        e-mail address;    -   image specification means for specifying an image in which a        person having the e-mail address input by the e-mail address        input means as a destination is an imaged object from the images        stored in the image storage means;    -   display means for displaying, as image candidates to be attached        to an e-mail destined for the e-mail address input by the e-mail        address input means, identification information of the image        specified by the image specification means so as to be selected        by the user; and    -   image attaching means for attaching the image selected by the        user from the images selectably displayed by the display means        to the e-mail destined for the e-mail address input by the        e-mail address input means.

A communication terminal device and a recording medium, according to thepresent invention, uses a function of recognizing a person within animage to specify destination candidates from an attached image selectedby a user and displays the destination candidates so as to be selectedby the user, which maintains convenience of automatically determining ane-mail destination by an attached image while preventing an e-mail frombeing sent to a destination where the user does not intend to send. Acommunication terminal device and a recording medium, according to thepresent invention, use a function of recognizing a person within animage to specify attached image candidates by a destination input by theuser and display the attached image candidates so as to be selected bythe user, which maintains convenience of automatically determining anattached image by an e-mail address destination and also prevents anattached image that the user does not intend to send from being sent.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication terminal device of anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a communication terminal device of anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the data stored in animage storage area;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the data stored in anaddress book data storage area;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of the data stored in aperson data storage area;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of association information;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of an e-mail with an attached image sendingprocessing;

FIGS. 8A and 8B are flow charts of an automatic destination acquisitionprocessing;

FIGS. 9A to 9C are diagrams specifically illustrating an automaticdestination setting processing;

FIGS. 10A to 10E are diagrams specifically illustrating an automaticdestination setting processing;

FIGS. 11A and 11B are flow charts of an automatic destinationacquisition processing in the case where only persons whose associationdegrees are greater or equal to a predetermined value are made to bedestination candidates;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of association informationincluding an association degree and the like to be stored;

FIGS. 13A to 13C are diagrams illustrating an example in which e-mailaddresses are ranked as destination candidates and selectably displayed;

FIG. 14 is a flow chart of a calculating processing of an associationdegree from a moving image;

FIGS. 15A and 15B are diagrams illustrating one example of AE/AF controlhistory information;

FIG. 16 is a flow chart of an automatic destination acquisitionprocessing in the case where an e-mail address is acquired from an imagewhose imaged object is not a person;

FIG. 17 is a flow chart of a sending processing of an e-mail with anattached image;

FIG. 18 is a flow chart of an automatic image acquisition processing;

FIGS. 19A to 19E are diagrams specifically illustrating an automaticimage acquisition processing; and

FIGS. 20A to 20D are diagrams specifically illustrating an automaticimage acquisition processing according to an association degree.

EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference todrawings. The present invention is not limited to the followingembodiments and drawings. It should be apparent that the followingembodiments and drawings can be modified without departing from theprinciples of the present invention.

A communication terminal device 1 of an embodiment of the presentapplication will be described below. The communication terminal device 1of the present embodiment denotes a mobile phone. The communicationterminal device 1 may be a personal handy-phone system (PHS), a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a personal computer (PC) and the like.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the communication terminal device 1 andFIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of thecommunication terminal device 1. The communication terminal device 1includes an operation unit 101, a control unit 102, an imaging unit 103,a storage unit 104, an image recognition unit 105, a communication unit106, a display unit 107, an audio processing unit 108, amultiplexing/demultiplexing unit 109, an external memory driver 110 andan external memory loading unit 111.

The operation unit 101 includes various key buttons and denotes an inputunit for inputting telephone numbers and other information. Theoperation unit 101 is used when a user performs any operation on thecommunication terminal device 1 such as turning on/off a mobile phoneand imaging an object.

The control unit 102 includes a central processing unit (CPU) andcontrols the entire operation of the communication terminal device 1 onthe basis of a program stored in the storage unit 104. For example, thecontrol unit 102 controls each unit in response to a signal from theoperation unit 101 operated by the user. The control unit 102 alsoactivates a software for creating an e-mail (Mailer) to create and sendan e-mail.

The imaging unit 103 includes a charge coupled device (CCD), an A/Dconverter and the like, and converts an optical signal having imageinformation of an imaged object to an analog electrical signal, andconverts the analog electrical signal to a digital signal. For example,the imaging unit 103 images an object such as a person's face, alandscape and a character, and converts the imaged object to a digitalsignal having image information that can be used in the control unit102. Then, the converted image information is output in the display unit107 as necessary.

The display unit 107 includes, for example, a liquid crystal display(LCD), an electro-luminescence (EL) display and the like and displays animage captured by the imaging unit 103 and identification informationrecognized by the aftermentioned image recognition unit 105.

The display unit 107 also displays various necessary information forutilizing functions of the communication terminal device (for example,an operational status such as a power status, a radio wave intensity, aremaining battery power, a server connection status, an unread e-mailand the like, an input phone number, an e-mail destination, a message ofe-mail sent and the like, and received data such as a moving image, astill image, an incoming phone number of a calling party, a receivede-mail message, a received data such as a screen page on a connectedinternet and the like). When capturing an image with the communicationterminal device 1, the user selects an image that the user wants tocapture while monitoring image information output to the display unit107. Then, the user gives instructions of imaging, for example, bypushing down an operational key assigned as a shutter key (hereinafterreferred to as a shutter key) and the like. When the shutter key ispushed down, the imaging unit 103 captures an image of an object, andits image information is stored in the storage unit 104. The displayunit 107 may be composed of two display units such as main and subdisplay units or may be composed of more than two display units 107.

The storage unit 104 is, for example, composed of a read only memory(ROM) and a random access memory (RAM) and the like and stores data, asoftware such as Mailer, a program and the like that are used by thecommunication terminal device 1. The storage unit 104 also stores atemplate image necessary for image processing. The template imitates,for example, eyes, nose and mouth of a person and is used to extract aperson's face image from an image.

The storage unit 104 includes an image storage area 201, an address bookdata storage area 202 and a person data storage area 203.

The image storage area 201 stores images (still images and movingimages) mainly captured by the imaging unit 103 as illustrated in FIG.3. Each of the images is provided with an ID (an image ID) for uniquelyidentifying the image.

The address book data storage area 202 stores address book data in whichan address book ID, a name of a person, a phone number, an e-mailaddress and the like correspond to each person such as a callingpartner, as illustrated in FIG. 4. The address book ID uniquelyidentifies an address book data. In an example of FIG. 4, the user hasnot yet set an e-mail address for address book data in address book ID“A04” and therefore its e-mail address section is blank.

The person data storage area 203 stores data (person data) necessary forspecifying who the person is, as illustrated in FIG. 5. The person datais mainly a captured face image of the person (a face image). Each ofthe person data is provided with an ID (a person ID) for uniquelyidentifying the person data. The person data may be various informationcharacterizing a person (skin color, eyes, a mouth size and the like).

The storage unit 104 stores association information 204. The associationinformation 204 associates an image stored in the image storage area201, address book data stored in the address book data storage area 202and person data stored in the person data storage area 203 with oneanother. An example of the association information 204 is illustrated inFIG. 6. A first entry of the association information 204 illustrated inFIG. 6 shows that an image of an image ID “I01”, person data of a personID “P01” and address book data of an address book ID “A01” areassociated with one another. A second entry shows that an image of animage ID “I02” is associated with person data of a person ID “P02”, buthas not been associated with address book data yet. The exampleillustrated in FIG. 4 is merely an example so that file names of datamay correspond to one another without associating IDs and anyconfiguration of the association information 204 can be adopted.

Since capacity of the storage unit 104 has upper limit, thecommunication terminal device 1 may be short of capacity. Therefore, thecommunication terminal device 1 of the present embodiment includes theexternal memory loading unit 111 and external memory driver 110 toaccept an external memory 113 such as a semiconductor memory. Theexternal memory loading unit 111 is installed on side surface of ahousing so that the external memory 113 will not drop off while a useris performing operation.

The communication terminal device 1 can read and write images capturedby the imaging unit 103 and various information on the external memory113 loaded in the external memory loading unit 111.

Returning to FIG. 2, the image recognition unit 105 extracts a person'sface image from images stored in the image storage area 201. Then, theimage recognition unit 105 matches the extracted face image to persondata stored in the person data storage area 203, thereby specifyingwhose face image the face image is.

The audio processing unit 108 performs processing such as compressionand expansion for a digital audio signal input to an audio inputterminal or output from an audio output terminal.

The multiplexing/demultiplexing unit 109 compresses and expands apicture signal, and multiplexes compressed picture data and compressedaudio data to generate stream data for a moving image. Themultiplexing/demultiplexing unit 109 also reads stream data from thestorage unit 104 and the external memory 113, demultiplexes the streamdata into compressed picture data and compressed audio data, and passesthe demultiplexed data to audio input/output terminals or the displayunit 107.

The communication unit 106 includes an antenna and the like and sends orreceives information to/from other information processing devices. Thecommunication unit 106 also sends and receives to/from a base station, alocation server or a global positioning system (GPS) satellite andacquires a position coordinate (longitude, latitude) of thecommunication terminal device 1. The communication unit 106 alsoperforms communication processing and the like so that the communicationterminal device 1 can access the Internet. The communication unit 106may not be a single unit as illustrated in FIG. 2 and a plurality ofcommunication units 106 may be provided so that a plurality ofcommunication methods such as CDMA, EV-DO, wireless LAN and the like canbe used.

The audio processing unit 108, multiplexing/demultiplexing unit 109 andexternal memory driver 110 may realize their functions acting as anhardware in a special circuit or may realize their functions acting as asoftware available for the control unit to execute a program stored inthe storage unit 104.

(Image-Attached-E-mail Sending Processing)

Processing in which a user operates the communication terminal device 1to create an e-mail with an attached image (an image-attached-e-mailsending processing) will be described with reference to FIG. 7.

First, the user operates the operation unit 101 in the communicationterminal device 1 to input an instruction for activating a software tocreate an e-mail (Mailer). The control unit 102 activates the Mailer inresponse to the instruction (step S101). Specifically, the user canactivate the Mailer by selecting an item such as “e-mail” onto “newdocument” from a menu screen. The user can also activate the Mailerinstantly by pushing down a specified key such as a shortcut key. Inthis way, various methods can be used to activate the Mailer, and aslong as the Mailer can be activated, the present invention can beapplied to the present embodiment in any case.

Next, the user instructs the control unit 102 to attach an image to thee-mail created by operating predetermined menu and icons in the Mailer.In response to the instruction, the control unit 102 displays, in a listform, images stored in the image storage area 201 on the display unit107 so as to be selected by the user and receives a user's selection ofan image to be attached to the e-mail (hereinafter referred to as animage to be attached) (step S102). The user selects an attached imagethat the user wants to attach to the e-mail from the images listed onthe screen.

When an image that the user wants to attach to the e-mail is selected bythe user, the control unit 102 performs an automatic destinationacquisition processing to acquire an e-mail address associated with theselected image to be attached (step S103). The automatic destinationacquisition processing will be described in detail later.

If an e-mail address cannot be acquired by the automatic destinationacquisition processing (step S104; No), the control unit 102 attachesthe image to be attached selected in the step S102 to the e-mail with asetup of the subject, message and destination input by the userthereafter (step S105).

If e-mail addresses can be acquired by the automatic destinationacquisition processing (step S104; Yes), the control unit 102 displaysthe acquired e-mail addresses as destination candidates of the e-mail onthe display unit 107 so as to be selected by the user (step S106). Theuser operates the operation unit 101 to select an e-mail address thatthe user wants to set as the destination of the e-mail from thedisplayed destination candidates. Then, the control unit 102 sets theselected e-mail address as the destination of the e-mail (step S107).Next, the control unit 102 attaches the image to be attached selected instep S102 to the e-mail with a setup of the subject, message anddestination input by the user thereafter (step S108).

Moreover, when the user instructs such as to push down a button and soon for sending an e-mail, the control unit 102 sends the e-mail with animage created in step S105 or S107 (step S109). With performing theaforementioned, the processing of sending an e-mail with an attachedimage is terminated.

(Automatic Destination Acquisition Processing)

The aforementioned automatic destination acquisition processing (stepS103) will be described in detail with reference to a flow chart inFIGS. 8A and 8B.

First, the control unit 102 refers to the association information 204stored in the storage unit 104 and determines whether address book dataassociated with the attached image selected in step S102 exists or not(step S201).

If the control unit 102 determines that the associated address book dataexists (step S201; Yes), it acquires an e-mail address from the addressbook data (step S212) and the automatic destination acquisitionprocessing is terminated. In this case, without the aftermentionedprocessing to analyze an attached image and recognize a face image of animaged person, the control unit 102 can instantly acquire an e-mailaddress associated with the attached image by referring to theassociation information 204.

If the control unit 102 determines that associated address book datadoes not exist (step S201; No), it controls the image recognition unit105 to analyze the attached image selected in step S102 and detect aface image of an imaged person from the attached image (step S202).Specifically, the control unit 102 uses a template image of a person'sface to perform pattern matching within the attached image, therebyacquiring a face image of the imaged person from the attached image. Thecontrol unit 102 may use an image recognition technique other than usingthe template image to detect a face image from the attached image.

If a face image cannot be detected in the processing of step S202 (stepS203; No), it means that a person of an imaged object does not existwithin the attached image. Therefore, the control unit 102 displays tonotify a message such as “Since a person does not exist in the attachedimage, a destination cannot be automatically set” on the display unit107 (step S204). The automatic destination acquisition processing isterminated without acquiring an e-mail address of a destination.

If a face image can be detected in the processing of step S202 (stepS203; Yes), the control unit 102 controls the image recognition unit 105to detect person data of a person matching a person of the detected faceimage from person data stored in the person data storage area 203 of thestorage unit 104, using a predetermined person reference algorithm andthe like (step S205).

If the matching person data cannot be detected in the processing of stepS205 (step S206; No), it means that person data of the imaged person inthe attached image is not stored in the person data storage area 203.Therefore, the control unit 102 displays to notify a message such as“Since a person taken in the image is not known, a destination cannot beautomatically set” on the display unit 107 (step S207). Then, theautomatic destination acquisition processing is terminated withoutacquiring an e-mail address for a destination. After processing of stepS207, the user may additionally store, as data of a new person, the faceimage that has been determined not to have person data matching theretoin the person data storage area 203. This enables the person to bespecified from the next time, thereby improving convenience of thecommunication terminal device 1 with respect to the automaticdestination acquisition processing.

If the person data can be detected in the processing in step S205 (stepS206; Yes), the control unit 102 refers to the association information204 stored in the storage unit 104 to specify address book dataassociated with the detected person data (step S208). Then, the controlunit 102 acquires the specified address book data from the address bookdata storage area 202 of the storage unit 104 and determines whether ane-mail address is set in the acquired address book data or not (stepS209).

If an e-mail address is not set in the address book data (step S209;No), the control unit 102 displays to notify a message such as “Sincethe e-mail address is not registered in the address book, a destinationcannot be automatically set” on the display unit 107 (step S210). Then,the automatic destination acquisition processing is terminated withoutacquiring an e-mail address for a destination.

If it is determined that the e-mail address is set in the address bookdata (step S209; Yes), the control unit 102 acquires the e-mail addressfrom the address book data (step S211). Then, the automatic destinationacquisition processing is terminated. After processing of step S211,association information 204 that associates the address book data fromwhich the e-mail address is acquired, person data detected in step S205,and the image selected by the user in step S102 with one another may becreated and stored in the storage unit 104. By doing this, when theimage is selected as an attached file from the next time, step S201determines as Yes due to the existence of the association information204 and the control unit 102 can instantly acquire the e-mail addressfrom the associated address book data. If a plurality of persons' faceimages are detected in the processing of step S202, the processing ofsteps S205 to S211 are performed for each of the face images.

The aforementioned processing will be described with concrete exampleswith reference to FIGS. 9A to 9C.

For example, the case will be discussed where the user selects an image“STIL0100.JPG” illustrated in FIG. 9A as an attached image in theprocessing of step S102, and three persons are taken as imaged objectsin the attached image. If this image is not registered in theassociation information 204 (step S201; No), three face imagessurrounded with thick lines are detected in the processing of step S202,as illustrated in FIG. 9B. Then, in the processing of step S205, each ofthree face images is compared with person data, and person data ofperson IDs “PA”, “PB” and “PC” are detected as person data correspondingto three persons having the face images, respectively, as illustrated inFIG. 9C.

Furthermore, as illustrated in FIGS. 10A to 10E, address book data ofaddress book IDs “A01”, “A02” and “A03” corresponding respectively toperson data of person IDs “PA”, “PB” and “PC” are specified from theassociation information 204 (step S208) and e-mail addresses“A@mail.com”, “B@mail.com” and “C@mail.com” are acquired from thespecified address book data (step S211). Then the acquired e-mailaddresses are selectably displayed on the display unit 107 asdestination candidates of an e-mail attached with the selected image“STIL0100.JPG” (step S106). Then, an e-mail address selected by the userfrom the destination candidates (“B@mail.com” in FIG. 10E) is set as adestination of the e-mail with the attached image “STIL0100.JPG” (stepS107).

In this way, according to the present embodiment, when the user selectsan image to be attached to an e-mail, an image recognition function isperformed for the selected image so that the control unit 102 specifiesimaged persons in the image, and e-mail addresses of the specifiedpersons are displayed as destination candidates on the display unit 107so as to be selected by the user. Therefore, the user does not need tosearch an-email destination from the address book, but needs to selectand set a destination from destination candidates, thereby preventing ane-mail from being sent to an unintended destination.

All the more, the present invention is modifiable and applicable.

(Specifying a Destination Candidate While Taking into Consideration anAssociation Degree with an Attached Image)

In the examples illustrated in FIGS. 9A to 9C and 10A to 10E, thecontrol unit 102 treats e-mail addresses of three imaged persons“A@mail.com”, “B@mail.com” and “C@mail.com” equally and selectablydisplays them as destination candidates on the display unit 107.Alternatively, the control unit 102 may calculate an association degree,which indicates to what extent each of the imaged persons is associatedwith the attached image, from a predetermined information and displaysonly person data whose association degree is greater or equal to apredetermined value as an destination candidate on the display unit 107.

A flow chart of the automatic destination acquisition processing in thecase of performing such a control is illustrated in FIGS. 11A and 11B.The description of the same processing as that of the automaticdestination acquisition processing illustrated in FIGS. 8A and 8B willbe omitted.

If person data can be detected (step S206; Yes), the control unit 201calculates an association degree between a person of the detected persondata and the attached image (step S213). Details on a method ofcalculating an association degree will be described later.

Then, the control unit 102 determines whether the calculated associationdegree is greater or equal to a predetermined value or not (step S214).

If it is determined that the association degree is less than apredetermined value (step S214; No), the control unit 102 displays amessage such as “Since the detected person is rarely associated with theimage, the e-mail address is not set as a destination” on the displayunit 107 in order to notify accordingly (step S215).

If it is determined that the association degree is greater or equal to apredetermined value (step S214; Yes), the control unit 102 specifiesaddress book data corresponding to the face image and performs the sameprocessing of acquiring an e-mail address as that described in FIGS. 8Aand 8B so that the automatic destination acquisition processing isterminated (steps S208 to S211).

Performing such an automatic destination acquisition processing allowsto control for example, to exclude a subject that is estimated to be notso important for the user (low association degree) such as a personshowing up small in a corner of the attached image, from a destinationcandidate, thereby to improve usability of the communication terminaldevice 1.

As illustrated in FIG. 12, the association information 204 may includethe aforementioned association degree. FIG. 12 shows not only that threepersons having person ID “P11”, “P22” or “P33” respectively are imagedobjects in an image ID “I01”, but also that the person with person ID“P11” is most associated with the image among the three persons. Insteadof storing association degrees indicated by numeric values asillustrated in FIG. 12, association degrees indicated by “great”,“intermediate”, “little” and the like may be stored.

In this way, if the association information 204 includes an associationdegree, the control unit 102 may refer to the association information204 to specify address book data whose association degree with theattached image is greater or equal to a predetermined value and acquireits e-mail address.

If a plurality of imaged persons (person data) are detected from oneattached image, the control unit 102 may calculate an association degreeof each of the imaged persons or acquire from the associationinformation 204, rank each of the imaged persons according to his/herassociation degree, and display destination candidates with their e-mailaddresses on the display unit 107 so as to be selected by the user. InFIGS. 13B and 13C, e-mail addresses of three imaged persons such as“A@mail.com”, “B@mail.com” and “C@mail.com” are ranked with the first tothird place and destination candidates are displayed so as to beselected by the user. Displaying as aforementioned enables the user toselect an e-mail address that the user wants to send by reference to theranks, thereby to improve usability of the communication terminal device1.

Next, examples of methods A to D for finding the aforementionedassociation degree will be described below. These methods are mereexamples, the average value of the values calculated with the respectivemethods may be an association degree, or other methods other than thesemethods may be used to find an association degree.

(A) Finding an Association Degree, Based on a Position of a Face ImageWithin an Image

The control unit 102 determines a position of a face image of an imagedperson detected in step S202 of the automatic destination acquisitionprocessing and provides a higher association degree for a determinedposition as closer to the center of the attached image.

For example, in the case where an association degree is found for animage of FIG. 13A, “STIL0100.JPG” with this method and each imagedperson is ranked, an e-mail address of a centered person with person ID“PA” such as. “A@mail.com” is ranked as the first destinationcandidates, e-mail addresses of persons positioned at either side of thecentered person with person IDs “PA” and “PB” such as “B@mail.com” and“C@mail.com” are equally ranked and displayed as the second (FIG. 13B).

(B) Finding an Association Degree, Based on a Size of a Face Image

The control unit 102 determines a size of the face image detected instep S202 of the automatic destination acquisition processing andprovides an imaged person with a bigger face image with a higherassociation degree.

For example, in the case where an association degree is found for animage of FIG. 13A, “STIL0100.JPG” with this method and each imagedperson is ranked, e-mail addresses of persons with person IDs “PB” and“PC” whose face images are the biggest such as “B@mail.com” and“C@mail.com” are ranked and displayed as the first destination candidateand an e-mail address of a person with person ID “PA” such as“A@mail.com” is ranked and displayed as the third (FIG. 13C).

(C) Finding an Association Degree, Based on an E-mail Sending/ReceivingHistory

The control unit 102 may find an association degree of an imaged personon the basis of an e-mail sending/receiving history if the e-mailsending/receiving history is stored in the storage unit 104. Forexample, the control unit 102 refers to the sending/receiving historythereby to provide a higher association degree to an imaged person withmore number of times of sending and receiving e-mails. Alternatively,the control unit 102 refers to the sending/receiving history thereby toprovide a higher association degree to an imaged person with more numberof times of sending/receiving e-mails with attached images.

(D) An Association Degree in the Case of a Moving Image

The aforementioned methods A to C for calculating an association degreeare mainly applied for an imaged person detected from a still image. Forexample, an association calculation processing for finding anassociation degree of each person within a moving image A from themoving image A will be described with reference to a flow chart in FIG.14.

First, the control unit 102 selects one frame image from frame imagescomposing the moving image A (step S10). Next, the control unit 102 usesperson data stored in the person data storage area 202 to specify aperson (a face image) within the selected frame image (step S20). Indoing this, the control unit 102 also acquires the person ID of thisperson (face image) from person data stored in the person data storagearea 202.

Moreover, the control unit 102 finds an association degree thatindicates to what extent the specified person (face image) is associatedwith the frame image (step S30). For example, the control unit 102determines the position and size of the detected face image within theframe image. Then, the control unit 102 substitutes the determinationresult into a predetermined expression for calculating an associationdegree, thereby finding the association degree, the expression beingconstituted such that a higher association degree is provided to aperson whose face image is positioned closer to the center of the frameimage and has bigger size. Then, the control unit 102 accumulates andstores the found association degree for each person ID of the detectedperson (face image) in the storage unit 104 (step S40).

If there remains an frame image for which the aforementioned steps S10to S40 have not yet been performed processing among the frame imagescomposing the moving image A (step S50; No), the control unit 102repeatedly performs processing of selecting the frame image (step S10),detecting a person within the frame image (step S20), calculating anassociation degree of the detected person (step S30), and accumulatingand storing the association degree for each person (step S40).

If aforementioned processing in steps S10 to S40 have been performed inall frame images composing the moving image A (step S50; Yes), theassociation degree accumulated and stored for each person in the stepS40 becomes an association degree for each person within the movingimage A. Therefore, the control unit 102 creates the associationinformation 204 in which the association degree for each person (personID) stored in step S40 corresponds to an image ID of the moving image A(step S60). With performing the aforementioned, processing forcalculating an association degree in a moving image is terminated. Inthis processing, a higher association degree is calculated for a personwho is imaged a lot in the frame images composing a moving image and isimaged bigger in the center of the images.

(Specifying Destination with the Use of an AE/AF Control History)

When the imaging unit 103 captures an image of a person, an autoexposure (AE)/auto finder (AF) control can be performed for the face ofthe person. For example, a person (a person ID) to give the AE/AFcontrol preferentially is previously registered before imaging, and if aface image of the person is recognized during capturing an image, thecontrol unit 102 automatically adjusts exposure time and focus (AE/AFcontrol) such that the recognized face image can be captured mostbeautifully. In doing this, the control record can be recorded as theAE/AF control history as illustrated in FIGS. 15A and 15B. FIG. 15Aillustrates one example of AE/AF control history information incapturing a still image, in which a still image is associated withperson ID of a person given to the AE/AF control in the still image. Forexample, the AE/AF control history in FIG. 15A shows that AE/AF controlwas performed such that persons with person IDs “PA” and “PB” arebeautifully imaged in a still image “STIL0999.JPG”. In other words,persons with person IDs “PA” and “PB” are considered to be main imagedpersons in the still image “STIL0999.JPG”. Therefore, if the userselects “STIL0999.JPG” as an image to be attached to an e-mail and to besent, the control unit 102 can display e-mail addresses of persons withperson IDs “PA” and “PB” as destination candidates on the display unit107 so as to be selected by the user, by referring to the AE/AF controlhistory information. Therefore, the communication terminal device 1 candisplay an e-mail address as a destination candidate from a still imagewith the consideration of an AE/AF control history, thereby furtherimproving usability of communication terminal device 1.

FIG. 15B illustrates one example of AE/AF control history information incapturing a moving image. The AE/AF control history informationillustrated in FIG. 15B shows that persons with person IDs “PA” and “PI”were given AE/AF control in a moving image “MOVE0001.m2ts”. Timerequired for adjusting exposure time and a focus (AE operation time, AFoperation time, respectively) shows that AE/AF control was performed forthe person with person ID “PA” more often than for the person withperson ID “PI”. Therefore, when the user selects “MOVE0001.m2ts” as animage to be attached to an e-mail, the control unit 102, by referring tothe AE/AF control history information, can set e-mail addresses of thetwo persons with person IDs “PA” and “PI” given AE/AF control asdestinations and also can display the e-mail address of the person withperson ID “PA” as the first potential destination candidate and thee-mail address of the person with person ID “PI” as the second potentialcandidate on the display unit 107.

In this way, the communication terminal device 1 according to thepresent embodiment, can display an e-mail address in a moving image asdestination candidate with the consideration of an AE/AF controlhistory, thereby further improving usability of the communicationterminal device 1.

Examples have been described in which determination is made using AE/AFcontrol history information, but the same advantageous effect can beobtained by using other information as long as it can be determinedwhich person was mainly imaged.

(Example in Which an Image is Not Sent to the User Himself/Herself)

When the user selects an image to be attached to an e-mail and uses animage recognition function for the selected image, there may be a casewhere the user himself/herself is recognized. Such a case includes, forexample, a case where an image of the user and A with their arms aroundeach other is captured by the user himself/herself using his/her ownmobile phone, and then the image is selected. In this case, necessity tosend this image to the user himself/herself is remarkably low.Therefore, if the user and A are recognized in the image attached by theuser, control may be performed so as to exclude an e-mail address of theuser from destination candidates or to put it in a lower rank ofdestination candidates. The user's own e-mail address may be displayedas a destination candidate and a warning message may be displayed at thesame time.

(Example for Acquiring and Setting an E-mail Address from an Image inWhich an Imaged Object is Not a Person)

In the aforementioned embodiments, in order to acquire an e-mail addressfrom an attached image, the attached image needs to include a person asan imaged object. However, the control unit 102 can acquire an e-mailaddress from an image in which only a landscape was imaged and no personcan be detected, by using metadata contained in the attached image. Theautomatic destination acquisition processing in this case will bedescribed with reference to a flow chart in FIG. 16.

First, the control unit 102 acquires metadata from an attached imageselected by the user (step S301). In this case, the imaging date, timeand place of the attached image are acquired as metadata. The controlunit 102 may acquire metadata from a header file area of the attachedimage, or if metadata is stored in for example the storage unit 104, thecontrol unit 102 may acquire metadata from the storage unit 104.

Next, with the use of search conditions generated on the basis of theacquired metadata, the control unit 102 searches images stored in theimage storage area 201 of the storage area 104 and acquires the imagesmatching the search conditions (step S302). Examples of the searchconditions based on metadata include “search images captured withinthree days after the day when the attached image was captured”, “searchimages captured on a place within a predetermined distance from theplace where the attached image was captured” and “search images capturedon the same day and on the time within one hour before or after the timewhen the attached image was captured”. With the use of such searchconditions, the control unit 102 can search metadata of images stored inthe image storage area 201 to acquire images matching the searchconditions.

Next, the control unit 102 controls the image recognition unit 105 tospecify images in which an imaged object is a person among the imagesmatching search conditions acquired in step S302 (step S303).Specifically, the control unit 102 may use a template image of aperson's face to perform pattern matching within each of the imagesacquired in step S302, thereby specifying an image in which the person'sface image is detected.

Next, the control unit 102 controls the image recognition unit 105 todetect person data of a person matching an imaged person within theimage specified in step S303 in the person data storage area 203 of thestorage unit 104, using a predetermined person reference algorithm andthe like (step S304).

In the following, the control unit 102 refers to the associationinformation 204 to specify address book data associated with thedetected person data and acquire it from the address book data storagearea 202 (step S305). Then, the control unit 102 acquires an e-mailaddress from the acquired address book data (step S306). With performingthe aforementioned, the automatic destination acquisition processing isterminated. Then, the control unit 102 can display on the display unit107 the acquired e-mail address as a destination candidate of an e-mailwith the attached image in which a face image was not detected.

In this way, the control unit 102 can acquire an e-mail address from animage of a landscape and the like in which a person as an imaged objectcannot be detected, thereby further improving convenience of thecommunication terminal device 1.

For example, there is a case where A and B took a trip, A captured alandscape image during a trip, B did not, and A wants to send an e-mailwith the landscape image to B. In this case, an image captured on thesame time and place and having B as an imaged person can be searchedfrom this landscape image metadata and an e-mail address of B can bespecified from the searched image.

(Example of Acquiring an Attached Image from an E-mail Address)

In the aforementioned embodiments, when the user selects an image to beattached to an e-mail, the control unit 102 uses an image recognitionfunction to specify an imaged person included in the image and displaysan e-mail address of the specified person as a destination candidate onthe display unit 107 so as to be selected by the user. Alternatively,when the user inputs a destination e-mail address, an image in which aperson of the destination e-mail address was imaged is detected anddisplayed as an image candidate to be attached to an e-mail, which alsoimproves convenience of the communication terminal device 1.

Processing for sending an e-mail with an attached image in this casewill be described with reference to a flow chart in FIG. 17.

First, the user operates the operation unit 101 to input an instructionfor activating Mailer, and the control unit 102 activates the Mailer(step S401). Then, the user operates a menu of the Mailer to instruct ane-mail creation and the control unit 102 receives input of a destinatione-mail address (step S402).

When a destination e-mail address is input, the control unit 102performs an automatic image acquisition processing to acquire imagesassociated with the input e-mail address (step S403). The automaticimage acquisition processing will be described later. Instead ofinputting an e-mail address, address book data may be designated.

Next, the control unit 102 displays the images acquired in step S403 asimage candidates to be attached to an e-mail destined for the e-mailaddress input in step S402 on the display unit 107 (step S404). The useroperates the operation unit 101 to select an image that the user wantsto attach to the e-mail from the displayed attached image candidates.Then, the control unit 102 sets the selected image to an image attachedto the e-mail (step S405).

Next, the control unit 102 creates an e-mail to which the subject andmessage input by the user after step S405 are set (step S406) and sentthe e-mail (step S407).

(Automatic Image Acquisition Processing)

Furthermore, the aforementioned automatic image acquisition processing(step S403) will be described in detail with reference to a flow chartin FIG. 18. In the flow chart of FIG. 18, processing steps to beperformed if an image can not be acquired in the automatic imageacquisition processing will be omitted in order to make explanationeasier.

First, the control unit 102 specifies address book data to which thee-mail address input in step S402 is set from the address book datastorage area 202 of the storage unit 104 (step S501).

Next, the control unit 102 refers to the association information 204stored in the storage unit 104 to determine whether an image associatedwith the address book data specified in step S501 exists or not (stepS502).

If the control unit 102 determines that an associated image exists (stepS502; Yes), the control unit 102 acquires the image (step S505) and theautomatic image acquisition processing is terminated. In this case, thecontrol unit 102 can instantly acquire an image associated with ane-mail address by referring to the association information 204 withoutperforming the aftermentioned processing for searching an image withperson data associated with address book data.

If the control unit 102 determines that an associated image does notexist (step S502; No), the control unit 102 refers to the associationinformation 204 to acquire person data associated with the address bookdata specified in step S501 (step S503).

Next, the control unit 102 controls the image recognition unit 105 toacquire an image in which a person specified by the acquired person datais an imaged object from the images stored in the image storage area 201with the use of a predetermined person reference algorithm and the like(step S504). With performing the aforementioned, the automatic imageacquisition processing is terminated.

After processing of step S504, the association information 204 in whichthe acquired image, person data detected in step S503, and address bookdata specified in step S501 correspond to one another may be created andstored in the storage unit 104. By doing this, when an e-mail addressincluded in the address book data is selected from the next time, stepS502 determines Yes due to the existence of the association information204, thereby enabling the control unit 102 instantly to acquire anassociated image.

The aforementioned processing will be specifically described withreference to FIGS. 19A to 19E.

For example, when the user inputs an e-mail address “A@mail.com” as adestination of an e-mail (step S402), address book data with addressbook ID “A01” having the e-mail address is specified (step S501). Thecontrol unit 102 refers to the association information 204 to acquire animage associated with this address book ID data “MOVE001.m2ts” (stepS505). Then, image candidates to be attached to the e-mail including animage “MOVE001.m2ts” are displayed on the display unit 107 so as to beselected by the user (step S404). An image (“MOVE001.m2ts” in FIG. 19E)the user selected from the attached image candidates is set as a file tobe attached to the e-mail having the user's input destination“A@mail.com” (step S405).

When the user inputs a destination e-mail address, images correspondingto the e-mail addresses are specified and displayed as image candidatesto be attached to the e-mail on the display unit 107 so as to beselected by the user. Therefore, the user does not need to search animage to be attached, but needs to select and set the image to beattached from image candidates, thereby preventing an unintended imagefrom attaching to an e-mail.

In FIG. 19D, two attached image candidates “MOVE001.m2ts” and“MOVE002.m2ts” are treated equally and displayed as image candidates tobe attached. Alternatively, the control unit 102 may calculate anassociation degree indicating to what extent each image is associatedwith an imaged object from a predetermined information (the position andsize of the imaged object, the display time for a moving image and thelike) and avoid setting an image with an association degree less than apredetermined value as an image to be attached to an e-mail ordisplaying them as image candidates to be attached.

This allows to exclude an image that is estimated to be not importantfor a destination person such as an image in which a destination personshows up small in a corner of the image from image candidates to beattached, thereby further improving usability of the communicationterminal device 1.

Alternatively, when a plurality of images are detected in the automaticimage acquisition processing, the control unit 102 may calculate anassociation degree of each imaged person or acquire the associationdegree it from the association information 204, to rank each imageaccording to the association degree and display the images as imagecandidates to be attached on the display unit 107 so as to be selectedby the user. In FIG. 20C, two moving images “MOVE001.m2ts” and“MOVE002.m2ts” are ranked according to their association degrees, andthe moving image “MOVE001.m2ts” ranked as the first and the moving image“MOVE002.m2ts” ranked as the second are displayed as image candidates tobe attached so as to be selected by the user. This display enables theuser to refer to the ranks and select an image that the user wants toattach, thereby further improving usability of the communicationterminal device 1.

(Others)

A communication terminal device according to the present invention isnot limited to a dedicated hardware and can be realized in a commoncomputer system. Specifically, in the aforementioned embodiments,description has been made with respect to the case where a program ofthe communication terminal device is previously stored in the storageunit 104. However, the communication terminal device may be configuredsuch that a program for making the aforementioned processing operationfunction is stored and distributed in a computer readable medium such asan external memory 113, a flexible disc, a compact disk read-only memory(CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD) and a magneto-optical disk(MO), and by installing the program in a computer the aforementionedprocessing is performed.

A program may be stored in a disc device of a server device on acommunication network such as the Internet, and the program may bedownloaded onto a computer by being superimposed on a carrier wave. Theaforementioned processing can be achieved by transferring a program viaa communication network and activating and executing the program.

In the case where a part of the aforementioned function is performed byan operating system (OS) or the aforementioned function is realized byworking an OS and an application together, a program other than OS maybe stored and distributed in a medium and downloaded onto a computer.

Having described and illustrated the principles of this application byreference to one or more preferred embodiments, it should be apparentthat the preferred embodiments may be modified in arrangement and detailwithout departing from the principles disclosed herein and that it isintended that the application be construed as including all suchmodifications and variations insofar as they come within the spirit andscope of the subject matter disclosed herein.

1. A communication terminal device comprising: an image storage unit tostore images; an e-mail address storage unit to store persons' e-mailaddresses; an attached image selection unit to receive a user'sselection of an image to be attached to an e-mail from the images storedin the image storage unit; an imaged object detection unit to detectinformation that specifies an imaged person in the attached imageselected by the attached image selection unit; an e-mail addressacquisition unit to acquire an e-mail address of the imaged person fromthe e-mail addresses stored in the e-mail address storage unit, on thebasis of the information detected by the imaged object detection unit; adisplay unit to display the e-mail addresses acquired by the e-mailaddress acquisition unit as destination candidates of the e-mail withthe attached image so as to be selected by the user; and an e-mailaddress setting unit to set an e-mail address selected by the user fromthe e-mail addresses selectably displayed by the display unit as adestination of the e-mail with the attached image.
 2. The communicationterminal device according to claim 1, further comprising an associationdegree calculation unit to find an association degree indicating to whatextent the imaged person specified by the information detected by theimaged object detection unit is associated with the attached image, andwherein the display unit does not display an e-mail address of a personwhose association degree found by the association degree calculationunit is less than a predetermined value.
 3. The communication terminaldevice according to claim 1, further comprising an association degreecalculation unit to find an association degree indicating to what extentthe imaged person specified by the information detected by the imagedobject detection unit is associated with the attached image, and whereinif a plurality of e-mail addresses are acquired by the e-mail addressacquisition unit, the display unit displays each e-mail address as wellas information indicating a rank of the each e-mail address as an e-maildestination candidate among the plurality of e-mail addresses, the rankcorresponding to the association degree calculated by the associationdegree calculation unit.
 4. The communication terminal device accordingto claim 1, further comprising an association information storage unitto store association information that associates an e-mail address of aperson with an image, and wherein the e-mail address acquisition unitrefers to the association information, and if an e-mail addressassociated with the attached image selected by the attached imageselection unit exists, the e-mail address acquisition unit acquires thee-mail address.
 5. A communication terminal device comprising: an imagestorage unit to store images; an e-mail address storage unit to storepersons' e-mail addresses; an e-mail address input unit to receive auser's input of an e-mail address; an image specification unit tospecify an image in which a person having the e-mail address input bythe e-mail address input unit as a destination is an imaged object fromthe images stored in the image storage unit; a display unit to display,as image candidates to be attached to an e-mail destined for the e-mailaddress input by the e-mail address input unit, identificationinformation of the image specified by the image specification unit so asto be selected by the user; and an image attaching unit to attach theimage selected by the user from the images selectably displayed by thedisplay unit to the e-mail destined for the e-mail address input by thee-mail address input unit.
 6. The communication terminal deviceaccording to claim 5, further comprising an association degreecalculation unit to find an association degree indicating to what extentthe image specified by the image specification unit is associated withthe person having the e-mail address input by the e-mail address inputunit as a destination, and wherein the display unit does not display animage whose association degree found by the association degreecalculation unit is less than a predetermined value.
 7. Thecommunication terminal device according to claim 5, further comprisingan association degree calculation unit to find an association degreeindicating to what extent the image specified by the image specificationunit is associated with the person having the e-mail address input bythe e-mail address input unit as a destination, and wherein if aplurality of images specified by the image specification unit exist, thedisplay unit displays an image name of each image as well as informationindicating a rank of the each image as an image candidate to be attachedto an e-mail among the plurality of images, the rank corresponding tothe association degree calculated by the association degree calculationunit.
 8. The communication terminal device according to claim 5, furthercomprising an association information storage unit to store associationinformation that associates a person's e-mail address with an image, andwherein the image specification unit refers to the associationinformation and if an image associated with the e-mail address input bythe e-mail address input unit exists, the image specification unitacquires the image.
 9. A recording medium storing a program, the programmaking a computer function as: an image storage unit to store images; ane-mail address storage unit to store persons' e-mail addresses; anattached image selection unit to receive a user's selection of an imageto be attached to an e-mail from the images stored in the image storageunit; an imaged object detection unit to detect information thatspecifies an imaged person in the attached image selected by theattached image selection unit; an e-mail address acquisition unit toacquire an e-mail address of the imaged person from the e-mail addressesstored in the e-mail address storage unit, on the basis of theinformation detected by the imaged object detection unit; a display unitto display the e-mail addresses acquired by the e-mail addressacquisition unit as destination candidates of the e-mail with theattached image so as to be selected by the user; and an e-mail addresssetting unit to set an e-mail address selected by the user from thee-mail addresses selectably displayed by the display unit as adestination of the e-mail with the attached image.
 10. A recordingmedium storing a program, the program making a computer function as: animage storage unit to store images; an e-mail address storage unit tostore persons' e-mail addresses; an e-mail address input unit to receivea user's input of an e-mail address; an image specification unit tospecify an image in which a person having the e-mail address input bythe e-mail address input unit as a destination is an imaged object fromthe images stored in the image storage unit; a display unit to display,as an image candidate to be attached to an e-mail destined for thee-mail address input by the e-mail address input unit, identificationinformation of the image specified by the image specification unit so asto be selected by the user; and an image attaching unit to attach theimage selected by the user from the images selectably displayed by thedisplay unit to the e-mail destined for the e-mail address input by thee-mail address input unit as the destination.
 11. A communicationterminal device comprising: image storage means for storing images;e-mail address storage means for storing persons' e-mail addresses;attached image selection means for receiving a user's selection of animage to be attached to an e-mail from the images stored in the imagestorage means; imaged object detection means for detecting informationthat specifies an imaged person in the attached image selected by theattached image selection means; e-mail address acquisition means foracquiring an e-mail address of the imaged person from the e-mailaddresses stored in the e-mail address storage means, on the basis ofthe information detected by the imaged object detection means; displaymeans for displaying the e-mail addresses acquired by the e-mail addressacquisition means as destination candidates of the e-mail with theattached image so as to be selected by the user; and e-mail addresssetting means for setting an e-mail address selected by the user fromthe e-mail addresses selectably displayed by the display means as adestination of the e-mail with the attached image.
 12. A communicationterminal device comprising: image storage means for storing images;e-mail address storage means for storing persons' e-mail addresses;e-mail address input means for receiving a user's input of an e-mailaddress; image specification means for specifying an image in which aperson having the e-mail address input by the e-mail address input meansas a destination is an imaged object from the images stored in the imagestorage means; display means for displaying, as image candidates to beattached to an e-mail destined for the e-mail address input by thee-mail address input means, identification information of the imagespecified by the image specification means so as to be selected by theuser; and image attaching means for attaching the image selected by theuser from the images selectably displayed by the display means to thee-mail destined for the e-mail address input by the e-mail address inputmeans.